Neither FSU or Miami pleased about rematch

MARK LONGAP Sports Writer

Published Monday, December 08, 2003

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MIAMI COACH LARRY COKER applauds his team after stopping Pittsburgh from scoring in the second quarter in Pittsburgh on Saturday, Nov. 29. Coker will lead his team in the Orange Bowl against rival Florida State.

AP Photo MIAMI -- No one wanted this rematch. Not Florida State. Not Miami. Not even the Orange Bowl.

Nonetheless, the Bowl Championship Series on Sunday paired the 10th-ranked Hurricanes against the ninth-ranked Seminoles in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 1 -- a rematch of a game played in October and a preview of the 2004 season opener for the instate rivals.

"I really don't want to play Florida State again as a rematch and then to open the season with them," Miami coach Larry Coker said. "I don't think that's particularly good for college football. I don't think that's really the way it was designed to happen. But that's what is happening and we've got to move forward."

The Orange Bowl selected Big East champion Miami (10-2) as its "anchor team" and hoped the Fiesta Bowl would take the Seminoles to avoid a rematch, leaving the Orange with Ohio State.

But Fiesta Bowl officials exercised a provision in BCS rules that gave them an "economic priority" pick ahead of the Orange Bowl and selected the Buckeyes, which basically stuck the Orange Bowl with Atlantic Coast Conference champion Florida State (10-2).

"We preached that for the whole BCS system that (Miami-Ohio State) would be better," Orange Bowl executive director Keith Tribble said.

The Orange Bowl made a similar move last year when it exercised the option and picked Big Ten runner-up Iowa, a selection that upset Rose Bowl officials who were left with Oklahoma.

Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese, who coordinates the BCS, said the bowl selection committee considered the Orange Bowl's request to avoid a rematch but decided to honor the bowl selection order.

That left the Orange Bowl with Florida State-Miami.

The Hurricanes have beaten the Seminoles four consecutive times, including a 22-14 victory in Tallahassee on Oct. 11.

With Miami moving to the ACC next season, the teams are scheduled to open the season with a Monday night game on Sept. 6, Labor Day, in Miami. That means the teams will play three times in less than 11 months.

Florida State athletic director Dave Hart said he was given assurances that because of the 2004 opener a rematch in a bowl game would not happen.

Coach Bobby Bowden said he probably would not have agreed to play Miami in the 2004 opener had he known he would face the same opponent to end the 2003 season.

"That's too close," he said. "But we'll just do the best we can with it."

Miami athletic director Paul Dee agreed that a rematch was far from ideal.

"This is just one of those outcomes where it's not the outcome that everybody wants, but it's certainly a good one," Dee said.

Bowden is 8-13 against Miami since 1983. But five of the victories came between 1995 and 1999 while the Hurricanes were recovering from NCAA sanctions that included dozens of scholarship reductions.

But the series has become one of the best in college football, with the teams combining for seven national championships and 19 conference titles in the last two decades.

The Seminoles have some history in bowl rematches. They played fellow instate rival Florida twice during the 1996 season.

Florida State beat the Gators late in the regular season, then after a series of losses by other teams, they met again in the Sugar Bowl for the national title. Florida won 52-20.

"I'd rather not replay a team that we played during the regular season," Bowden said. "I'd rather not play a rival. Miami is a rival, Florida is a rival. When you play Miami and you play Florida, there's more pressure involved than if you play a Michigan or a Kansas State or somebody where you don't know each other.

"This is going to be a little more of a pressure job for us as coaches. The players, I don't know if it makes that much difference for them. They just want to play in a bowl."